Dental 2

Well, it's been a week since the tooth was extracted.  All in all, it has gone rather well.    The dentist said I was in for a miserable 48 hours, a week of annoyance, would be a left-side chewer the rest of my life, and would feel a "Grand Canyon" for a long time where the tooth was.  And that I could expect my outer cheek to be bruised and sensitive.

He recommended ice on my cheek, Tylenol 3 for the pain, and soft food for a month.  Considering the way he had to drill and break the tooth (a horrible sound), I expected that would be true.

The truth is that I seem to have gotten off easy.  I took a Tylenol 3 pill as the novocaine was wearing off, but I didn't really need it.  I never bothered to take another.  I never bothered with the ice.  I had no bruised or sensitive cheek.

The cut gum did take a couple days to stop seeping some blood.  The seemingly-over-abundance of gauze pads they gave me to fold and keep over the extraction point were actually barely enough.  He admitted that he had to do more cutting than he expected, so that makes sense.

The gap does feel huge.  My tongue says it is an inch wide, but it is really only about 1/4".  It was the most forward pre-molar and those are not very large.  

The gap may even become smaller over time.  A dentist from a few decades ago wanted to remove a couple teeth just so the remaining ones could spread out.  I have a small jaw and it forced some teeth slightly crooked.  Apparently, teeth can actually move slightly, given some space.  That seems a bit odd (since they are in bone), but I had read about that a couple of times elsewhere.  Well, bone is actually living tissue, so I suppose it's possible.  I really hope that is correct, because my lower right incisor is a bit out of place and if the new empty spot allows it to straighten some, that would be good.

The dissolving stitches did indeed dissolve.  Monday (4 days to the minute after the extraction LOL) I felt a slight stringy sensation sort of like a celery string between 2 teeth.  I was careful about it.  But a 1/4 inch piece of "something" came loose onto my tongue and it was a thread.  Touching the spot carefully, they were all loose and I removed them.

So it could have been a lot worse.  I remember co-workers talking about how horrible their extraction was.  Pain for days in spite of medications, etc.   

I'm probably not doomed to left-side chewing forever.  After the 2 lower right back molars (wisdom tooth and the one next to it) were removed 20 years ago, it eventually didn't bother me to chew in that area after a month.  I hope this new gap eventually toughens up like those did.

If not, well, getting older sucks and things start to go wrong.  You adjust as best you can.  My right knee is not great sometimes, my lower back hurts sometimes, I get leg muscle cramps laying in bed and rib muscle cramps when I twist around reaching for things behind me.  I get finger-clenches if I grip tools too long doing yardwork (it occurs a few hours later while doing knife-work preparing dinner).  I really should remember to wear my padded garden gloves routinely.

Regarding that, I have a good supply of aspirin-infused ointment, lidocaine gel, and ibuprofen tablets.  But that is not about the dental work, so I will let that go for now.

I'm just glad the tooth extraction (bad as it was in the dentist's chair) went well afterwards.

Dental Woes

Well, I've gone and lost another tooth!  I lost 2 teeth about 15-20 years ago due to a cherry pit, and it has happened again...

The 2 teeth years ago were because I was cutting a cantelope into cubes while eating cherries and I forgot what I was eating.  Thinking "cantelope", I just bit down.  Crushed a molar.  PAIN!  I could only get an appointment with my then-dentist 3 days later, so I had fun sucking soup through a straw for 3 days.

The dentist said it couldn't be saved and had to come out.  And during the extraction, he found the roots were entangled with the wisdom tooth, so it had to come out to.  Fortunately, the extractions themselves didn't hurt.  But the pulling was brutal.  They were upper teeth, so he had to pull down.  

I could barely hold my head up to counter the down-pull.  Now I understand the phrase "like pulling teeth"!  My recollection is that there were no healing problems after, and it seems to me that I chewed normally after a few days.

So Wed 6-29, I was eating cherries.  Given my previous experience, I am careful.  But I still managed a glancing scrape with a pit.  I froze in place, expecting pain.  None.  Two days later, I was eating chocolate chip ice cream and suddenly felt a jolt.  I guess those frozen chips are HARD!

It was a tooth with a filling.  I could tell something was slightly loose, but nothing actually came out.  It wasn't temperature-sensitive but it was pressure-sensitive.  Naturally, that was Friday evening before a 3 day holiday weekend.  My current dentist's office was closed until Tuesday July 5.  There is an emergency number, but I wasn't actually in any pain (so long as I didn't chew on it).

I overslept a bit Tuesday, but called the dentist as soon as I got up.  Oh, cruelty of oversleeping!  Had I called an hour earlier, they could have gotten me in that day.  As it was, they were fully booked until July 11.  But they said they would call if there was a cancellation.

There was.  I got in Thurs 7-7.  And it was for my preference of the 3 dentists there.  I say that because the other 2 are "you are just a jaw to me; sit there and shut up".  The other talks, explains, encourages patience, shows the x-rays on a monitor, etc.

I hate the x-rays!  I have a small jaw (and therefore crowded teeth) and the film insert cuts my gum (like I said, small jaw).  But when the dentist came in, he complimented his assistant (and me) for the very clear x-rays.  

That's where things went downhill.  He could tell if the tooth was chipped on one side or split down to the root.  He called a partner in to look at it and he couldn't decide either.

If a chip on the side, the tooth could be saved with a crown or root canal drilling.  If not, it had to be removed.  He doesn't do root canals because there are several specialist here who he says are more expert at it (he's honest).

So my choice was to go to a specialist (maybe waiting a week or 2) or having him extract it then and there.  It is a forward pre-molar.  He said extraction would affect my chewing for the rest of my life, so he recommended seeing a specialist and left my for a few minutes to decide.  

Talk about bad choices!  I initially decided to visit the specialists, but as I sat there, I lost confidence that the tooth could be saved.  And so I expected that, in 2 weeks of possible specialist drilling and pain and temporary fillings, I would be back in the same chair for an extraction anyway.

I opted to have it pulled.

Now, you have to understand that the previous 2 extracted teeth were removed rather easily.  Lots of pulling, but they came out rather easily.  And the dentist said a premolar was easier and there were no root entanglements.

So we went about the process of novacaine shots and waiting for it to take effect.  I should mention that I am a bit resistant to most medications.  I usually need an extra novacaine shot before my jaw is numb to the point where the dentist is satisfied.  But I was finally numb at the spot the dentist wanted.  And apparently he had to use a "special" one;  "carbo-something".

It got bad...  The tooth would not come out.  I could feel it move in the jaw, but it refused to release.  He had to drill and break it all the way down.  He apologized every step of the way.  I was shaking from the sounds of my tooth being broken apart and in anticipation of a sudden jolt of pain (never happened).  

45 minutes of fear and worry.  I have a mantra from the book 'Dune' that helped:  

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

I had to repeat it often...  

Eventually, he said, OK, we're done".  He explained to me afterwards that the tooth was both split to the roots (so it couldn't have been saved by a specialist) and that the roots were unusually deeply anchored (which was probably why it had a filling rather than a crown).

And then there was the healing.  First, he had had to cut at the gum to get the last of the deep roots out and chip some bone away, which required (dissolving) stitches.  He gave me prescriptions for pain (Tylenol 3) and an antibiotic.  And a long list of things not to do...  

They gave me a thick pad of little 2" gauze pads and doubled the usual amount because they expected I would need it.  It was to be folded and held on the wound by light tooth pressure.  I guess that was for the gum cuts on the sides.  I actually had to use a lot of those.  I normally stop bleeding fast, but enough of a wound does need help.  It took a whole day for the bleeding to stop.

The rules they gave me said to ice my cheek every hour, eat only the softest of foods (DUH!), rinse my mouth with salty water several times a day, take an antibiotic pill every 24 hours and Tylenol 3 as needed.  I didn't need the Tylenol 3 or ice.  In fact, I felt no pain at all after the novacaine wore off.  I'm taking the antibiotics as required of course.

I bought a cherry-pitter (I do love cherries).  I've been eating eggs, spaghetti, bananas, soup, boiled veggies, and potatoes, etc, for over a week.  But this too shall pass away.  The jaw bone will heal, the gums will toughen, etc in time.

I know this is a minor problem compared to those of many people.  I'm not trying to seem unusual, brave or stoic or anything.  But it was my rather bad week.

If that is the worst thing that happens to me this year, I will be grateful.  As I slowly slide into my elder years, I expect to experience worse, gradually but inevitably.  Mom always said "growing old isn't for sissies".

March Comes In Like A Lion

And other problems...

We have had some of the strongest winds here the past 2 days and it is forecast to last another.  Well "strongest" except for hurricanes and those don't last as long.  There have been gusts up to 62 mph, and it seems constant around 40+.  The wind howled so loudly around the house I could barely sleep, and I was very tired from staying up all night on the computer til 8 am the day before and only getting 5 hours sleep before I was SO hungry I couldn't lay in bed anymore.

I've mentioned before that I keep weird hours, but maybe not have explained in much detail.

I stayed up late Tuesday night and got 5 hours sleep.  I stayed up late Wed night in spite of having a dental appointment Thursday at 2 pm.   Partly, it was stress from the dental visit, but partly because I got emails from almost everyone I know and wanted to respond.  And I had just started an online chess game and kept getting replies from my opponent.

I also had about 100 pictures to process, a Dr Seuss poem to write, some software downloading problems, and Amazon seemed to have taken over my search engine choices (anything I searched online was sending me straight to Amazon's page).

I can't sleep worth a damn when I have stuff floating around in my head like that, and the only solution is to stay up until I solve most of the problems. 

So I did most of that stuff, and went to the dentist about as tired as possible.  That is generally good, as I have some problems with dental work.  I have a small jaw and holding it open while they do their work is hard.  Plus, let's just say I have to swallow a lot when my jaw is stretched wide and leave it at that. 

So I got home Thursday and the winds hit!  I needed sleep and got little.  The crashing sounds outside didn't help.  I was "IN" bed 12 hours, but maybe got 8 hours sleep.  Which, averaging the past several nights came out to about 4 hours per night for 4 nights each.

My local meat market was having some specials this week of exactly the stuff I wanted.  Del Monico Steak at $8 per lb, pork boston butt at $2, deli roast beef at $5/lb, and other stuff.  I HAD to get up to shop today to shop (Saturday is a madhouse there).  And I was out of fresh fruit.  I love fruit. 

I slept Thursday night til noon.  Got up and left the house at 1 pm.  But that would have put me at the meat market just when the local school lets out and a dozen students hit the store deli counter for subs.  So I stopped to get a haircut. 

I obviously don't worry about my appearance too much, LOL!

The cats aren't very critical and it is not like I'm trying to win a "handsome contest". 

Driving to the barber and the grocery stores was interesting.  The car kept rocking in the wind just sitting at a traffic light.  While actually driving, I kept getting hit with cross-winds and wanted to "change lanes" for me.  Local bridges were all closed.  One bridge, after having 3 tractor-trailers just plain knocked over. 

The dentist said none of my teeth are any good.  Which is really annoying because I don't eat candy and sweet stuff and brush twice a day.

Well, Dad have no teeth left by my age, so I guess I will not thank him for THOSE genes. 

The neighborhood have fence panels blown out all over the place and I've never seen THAT even when Hurricanes blew through.  None of mine though!  Friends tell me I "overbuild" things.  But I know those neighbor's fences and they are newer than mine and build by professionals.  I built my own. 

Companies use 1x4s and I use 2x4s.  They use nails and I use screws.  And that is why it is still standing!  My fence is 30 years old now, and not one board loose...

Oh Bother!

I was innocently eating dinner last night, and suddenly detected a lump in my mouth.  I won't go into details, but I found a tooth crown that had come loose.  I'm glad my tongue found it before my teeth did! 

I washed it off carefully, then put it in a shotglass of mouthwash to keep it overnight.  My dentist had an opening at 3 pm today, so off I went.  I was admitted promptly at 3 pm (be still my beating heart).   First thing they did was sterilize it of course (mouthwash or not - they were kind about that and admired my intent).  Then they examined the tooth for damage and it looking OK, they tried a test re-fit.

It fit so well, they actually had trouble getting it back off.  So they took it away and drilled off the old epoxy.  The dentist Himself came in and showed it to me.  The gold crown was so old it actually had a hole worn through the top.  Well, I had several crowns 40 years ago, so it lasted pretty well.

And I learned something about crowns.  I always thought gold crowns lasted the longest, but was wrong.  Porcelain lasts longest, followed by silver, followed by gold.  And the gold content is low.  But gold wears at about the same rate as tooth enamel, so the bite stays the same.  Silver is close and can easily be ground down to match the bite. 

Porcelain doesn't wear down.  You would think that would be perfect, but it means that the crown top becomes a high spot over decades and makes your jaw adjust and some annoying stuff like that.  It is mostly for cosmetic reasons.  Well, I seriously doubt anyone other than a dentist will ever see that back molar.

The old crown was replaced, but it is temporary (like a year or 3).  It still has that tiny hole in the top, and that will lead to caries someday.  But "tis enough, will serve"...

But it also meant he looked at my other teeth.  I knew there were 2 other teeth that had sharp tops, which meant damage.  I'd been avoiding it. 

But you have to get such things fixed eventually.  As the dentist said, "you can have them fixed now while I can still put a crown on them, or you can wait until they have to be removed entirely".  So I have an appointment in 2 weeks to start getting those 2 teeth crowned, and then the old (now temporary) one from today replaced over a series of visits. 

I hate dental visits.  Well, no one likes them, but mine are worse than average.  I have a small jaw (apparently genetic) and can't open it as far as most people can.  My cats can open theirs more than I can!  A kitten probably can...  I have the jaw of a 12 year old!  In general, I have great genes - other than my teeth.  I seem to owe that to Dad.  At my age, he had almost no tooth unfilled, uncrowned, and 2 partial bridges.  At least I'm not at that point yet.  Hurray for fluoridation and novocaine (and nitrous oxide on occasion during a root canal).

My jaw is so small, my wisdom teeth never even emerged, and even then my teeth are too crowded.  In my 20s, a dentist said I should have 4 teeth extracted; a left upper and lower; a right upper and lower, make proper room for the rest.  At the time, that seemed horrible!  He said it would be painful afterwards for days.  But now I wish I had had that done.  Nothing like hindsight...

As it turned out, I had to have 2 teeth extracted 4 years ago.  One planned because it had simply fallen apart, and one unplanned because the roots were entangled  in the first.  Fortunately, it didn't bother me.  But the thing that amazed me was that the procedure wasn't the least bit painful (as the old dentist suggested it would be).  It was however utterly boring (no pun intended).  Drilling, spitting, holding my head to resist pulls, etc.  Never hurt in the least during or after!

On the other hand, I have a limited number of teeth, so I would like to keep them as long as possible.  Anything good for 20 years is probably OK.

So I'm going on a journey of dental work, which should last until flu season is over.  Then to a doctor to start getting regular exams and a series of physical and virtual exams that my insurance rep says is covered these days as "preventative medicine".  I plan to get every "virtual" test they will allow, and possible some not covered. 

On sad fact is that I've never been to any one doctor for more than a few years, so my medical history is almost non-existent.  But I went through my age-old medical file today and discovered some valuable information. 

Things like a 1988 letter from Mom (in response to my questions) detailing some family and personal history, some old doctor visit bills - a few of which mentioned some blood test results - etc.  I'll make copies to bring to my new doctor (I chose a geriatric internist over a GP).

But the important thing is that I'm getting back on track for regular medical care after decades of assuming I was immortal.  I've treated my cats and maintained my car better than I have myself.

Time to get myself into the maintenance loop...

Crown Of Gold

Well, I'm sitting here contemplating the Gold Crown on the table in front of me.  Unfortunately, its not the kingly type of crown.  Its the kind that comes loose from a tooth!

It hardly seems fair.  I don't eat hard candies.  I don't crunch on ice cubes.  I don't eat really sticky stuff like taffy.  I was simply eating a bit of marinated boneless skinless chicken breast.  But it seems there was a tiny flake of bone in there.  It jammed in between 2 teeth like an ax into a log.

I was careful, I really was!  I used a wooden toothpick, I tried to remove the bone flake with downward pressure front and back for several cautious minutes.  When it finally seemed to loosen slightly, I OH SO CAREFULLY tried to lift it back out the way it entered. 

The length of time between feeling a slight movement and the realization that it was a crown coming loose was infinitesimal.  Seriously, I didn't even know that tooth HAD a crown.  I have a half dozen scattered around and after a month I can't tell where they are.  That's kind of the whole point of having them...

If dental stuff is icky to you, you might want to just skim ahead...

The last thing I was expecting earlier today was having to call a dentist tomorrow for an appointment.  But life is what happens when you aren't expecting it.  I suppose I should have though.  I may have gotten good cold and flu resistance genes from my parents, but the tooth genes were not so good.  Dad had only half his teeth by my age and a mouthful of partial dentures that seemed to come loose every 3 or 4 years.  He complained about it a lot.

In fact, my wisdom teeth never emerged.   X-Rays show them, but apparently they are blocked or something.  Side note:  Wisdom teeth are slowly vanishing from humans.  Some people don't have them, in others, they don't emerge.  Someday we won't have them at all.

I don't hate dentists!  What they do is valuable for relieving pain and making it easy to eat, etc.  But I DO hate dental work.  I was cursed with a small jaw and therefore crowded teeth.  When I was in my 20s one dentist wanted to pull a couple of teeth "to give me a better smile".  That sounded miserable and I wasn't concerned with what I perceived to be cosmetic dentistry.  I wish he had been more straightforward!  I only learned many years later that there had still been time for the remaining teeth to slowly spread to normal positions (or so another dentist told me in my 50s).

And some dental work is seemingly worse for most but easier for me.  I'll just say that layin on my back while someone is messing around in my mouth is physically horrible (2 words - "nasal drip"), but sitting upright is OK. 

So when a tooth utterly broke 2 years ago and the dentist had to pull it out, I was worried at the time, the the pulling was mostly just boring.  And when he told my the tooth root was interlocked with the one next to it and had to come out too, I just said "sure"... 

I haven't had any problems with the 2 removed teeth.  Can't even tell they are missing when I chew.

But last year, suddenly 2 small fillings came out in upper back molars.  I had been planning to (and delaying) making an appointment.  Now it's forced, so I will have something done to those.  I hope they are refillable, but if they have to be removed I might find that easier.

And since I'm going on a dentist journey, I may see about implants for the 2 previously pulled teeth.  If (and only if)  they will be essentially permanent. 

Some day, we humans will learn how to grow new teeth as adults.  And there IS research toward that end.  Until then - AARRGGGHHH!

Tooth Pulled

Well, I ended up having TWO teeth pulled Thursday!  It was much less bad than I feared or had read about.  The novacaine worked well enough so that I never really felt anything during the extractions.  Oh, there was some pulling sensation, and I got poked on the other side by accident a few times, but the most disturbing part was the tooth-breaking noises and the dentist complaining that the main tooth just didn't want to come out.

He gave me a prescription for vicodin, but I didn't really feel that bad after the novacaine wore off, so I took the minimum dosage.

But I also had a plan to get through as much of the first 24 hours as easily as possible!  First, I stayed up all night and day before the appointment.  Then after the novacaine wore off about 5 pm, drank 2 bowls of soup (cream of mushroom and chicken noodle). 

I went to bed at 8 pm!  Other than taking another vicodin whenever I woke up after 4 hours, I stayed in bed until 4pm.  Yes, 20 hours!  And I only got up then to feed the cats...  So I had a bowl of spaghetti.  It seemed like the softest solid food I had.  But it meant I pretty much slept through the 24 hours after the extractions.

A curious part of the whole operation was that the dentist put a blood pressure cuff on me that automatically inflated, displayed my blood pressure, then deflated.  And did that every few minutes the entire time.  I'd been wondering about my blood pressure for years.  Sitting in a dentists chair, awaiting the operation, it was 120/70.  The highest it got the whole time was 157/85.  The dentist was surprized too.  When he saw the first one, he laughed and said "You're going to be just fine".

I don't consciously do meditation or related relaxation techniques, but as I was sitting there waiting for the novacaine to take effect, I recalled snippets of a mantra from the sci-fi book 'Dune'.  I basically came up with "Fear is the mind-killer.  I will not allow fear to control me.  I will adapt to the requirements of the moment."  I don't know if that actually had any effect, but it seemed to do no harm either.

Naturally, I looked up the quote when I got home.  It reads, in full, 

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

But there is another part to my scheduling plan.  There is a brand new meteor shower that will be visible in all of North America from 2-4 am EDT Saturday (as in 2 to 4 hours after Friday midnight, Washington DC time.  It may be a spectacular Meteor Storm (1,000+ meteors per hour) or it may be a dud.  The meteors will come out of a spot dead north (just to the right and down from the Big Dipper.

So be staying in bed so late today, I will be awake at that time!  And for once during the regular meteor showers, it will be warm AND the sky will be clear.  I sure hope it is spectacular.  I've never seen a good in my life!  

Back to the dental work.  My tongue tells me that there is a HUGE GAPING HOLE in the back right upper side.  The jaw hurts to open fully, but that's from the novacaine shot (I've experienced that from past dental work).  I suppose I will wait longer than necessary to chew on that side of my mouth agai.  Well, I've been chewing on one side for a couple months, so another week won't matter.

But I seem to have gotten through...

Funniest Jokes

Since I will be pretty loopy and really unhappy after the tooth extraction at 2 pm today, I am leaving the 4 best jokes I ever heard, for your amusement.  I'll be back online Friday (I hope) or Saturday (If things are difficult) when the extraction heals and I don't have the painkiller pills messing up my mind...

Laughter is sometimes the best medicine...

1.  Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls 911s. He gasps, "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator says "Calm down. I can help. First, let's make sure he's actually dead." There is a silence, then a gun shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says "OK, now what?"


2.  Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson go on a camping trip.  After a good dinner and a bottle of wine, they retire to their tent for the night, and go to sleep.

Some hours later, Holmes wakes up and nudges his faithful friend. “Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see.”

“I see millions and millions of stars, Holmes” replies Watson.

“And what do you deduce from that?”

Watson ponders for a minute.  “Well, 

	Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets.
	Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo.
	Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three.
	Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow.
	Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful, and that we are a small and insignificant part of the universe.

But what does it tell you, Holmes?”

Holmes is silent for a moment.  

“Watson, you idiot!” he says.  “Someone has stolen our tent!”

3.  Two guys are in the woods when they see a grizzly bear running towards them. The first guy runs away and the other follows.

Surprised, the other man says " What are you thinking, we can't outrun a bear!  The first guy says "I just have to outrun you." 

4.  A research group was engaged in a study of longevity in mammals and had recently focused their attention on a particular species of porpoise. They came to believe that, if fed just the right combination of nutrients, this particular porpoise could, in theory, live forever.

To put this to the test, they studied the world's flora and fauna to see if any naturally occurring organism would fit the bill. They finally narrowed the selection down to an unusual species of mynah bird, and they sent a team of researchers off to gather a specimen.

It turns out that the mynah bird in question was quite rare, living only in a single tree in Kenya. The research team finally arrived at the tree to capture a bird, only to find that the tree was surrounded by a pride of very hungry lions, precluding any reasonable attempt to approach and climb the tree.

A suggestion was made that the lions might be manageable if they could be fed, and a couple of fat cape buffalo were captured and offered to the lions. The hungry lions devoured the hapless beasts and lay down upon the grass to digest their meal.

One of the researchers then gingerly tiptoed past the lions, climbed the tree, and had little difficulty capturing one of the mynah birds. He climbed back down the tree and walked past the lions to rejoin the group when a game warden appeared and arrested him for (what else)...

"Transporting mynahs across sated lions for immortal porpoises." 

Hope you liked them 

Happy Birthday To Me.

Today's my 64th birthday (sounds of the Beatles "When I'm 64" running around my head),  Tomorrow, I get a tooth pulled out,  and I mean yanked right out of my jaw like it was done 100 years ago.  Well, OK, painkillers are better today.

Um, "woo hoo and yippee"...

And I'm not even allowed to have any wine afterwards even with dinner for 2 days because the painkiller pill is serious stuff.  The dentist says I should have someone "with me", but I don't so I will just stay in bed with the cats, have some soup ready for reheating, and wait the healing out.

He says I can't even drink through a straw ("negative pressure").  I bet I can. But I may not test it.

I hate having been too stupid to have avoided easier solutions, but sometimes even intelligent people do stupid things.  Seriously, 8 years ago, I could have just had the damn crown reglued back on.  All I can say is that ignoring it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Don't ignore dental stuff!!!

Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday to me.
Happy Birthday you stupid idiot,
Happy Birthday to me.

Dental Visit Results

Well, the dentist visit today was just an exam, but the news is awful.  I have to have a tooth removed (I had expected that, but hoped I was wrong).  I have 2 teeth with partial filling loss and one may need a crown.  And there is one he wants to examine more closely later (not urgent).  Its my own fault; I avoided things for too long.

The tooth removal is scheduled for May 22nd.  I gather that it really is pretty much the "pliers and yanking” process.  Well, OK, he says its fancy "screwdrivers" to rock the roots back and forth, but he will still be kneeling on me and pulling hard and I will actually have to hold my head UP while he pulls DOWN.

I love that they take digital xrays these days.  I had an internal one and one that revolved around my head outside.  Instantly on the computer screen!  I looked at it carefully, and could see my gum line (very healthy) but WOW do those tooth roots go DEEP!  They are like icebergs, 90% hidden.  It's NOT going to be fun.

I’ll be really unhappy for a couple of days after that and I don’t even get to have any alcohol.  Apparently, the pain-killer can only do so much BUT it  reacts badly with alcohol AND you are a bit loopy.  I may have to disconnect my computer before the extraction so I don’t type insane stuff.  Can’t upset my friends with crazed rants from a drugged blogger.  In fact, I think I will arrange for a pre-scheduled post to that effect that day, just in case. 

The tooth extraction is unavoidable  and further work is necessary and I am going to hate this next few weeks.  But the dentist is good.  Well, OK. He is highly rated on Angie's List.  But he is also honest.  He told me the bad parts, he understands my physical problems with the dentist chair, and described how he will adjust to them as much as possible.  I can't ask much more than that.

I think I will ask him to email me the digital xrays.  That would be cool to look at!  And show.  Well, medical stuff is fascinating to me.  I love seeing my insides (the better to understand my self).

Tomorrow, back to normal stuff, like planting my tomatoes...

An Overdue, But Unwanted Visit

I'm sure you have all had to eventually to something you avoided as long as possible.  Tomorrow is my day for one of those.  Tomorrow, I visit The Dentist.

8 years ago, the first week of my retirement, I was having lunch with a friend to celebrate my retirement.  A filling came loose.  Well, it didn't bother me to have it missing, so I delayed going to a dentist to replace it.  My previous dentist had just retired and I didn't like the rather odd attitude of the 2 guys who bought his practice.  Somehow, the oldr dentist's motto of "We cater to cowards" because "Deal with it you coward". 

So not feeling any immediate problem, I figured I would just find a new dentist.  Besides, I had some problems in the dental chair, so I kind of avoided doing annything.

No one likes the dental chair, but my reasons are not (I think) the usual ones.  I don't mind the drilling.  I don't feel it, I don't care.  The dentist could just as well be drilling my name in a concrete slab on the wall.

But I have some problems that cause me to avoid the dental chair mightily!  And if you are sqeamish, just stop reading.  Those of you you who accept that bodily functions vary and are sometimes annoying, may read on.

I have smoked for 45 years, and there are consequences.  I cough a lot, I have a constant nasal drip at the back of my throat, my nose runs, I swallow constantly, and as soon has my jaw is open, I salivate.  And there are some problems I had before I smoked.  I have a small jaw, my teeth are crowded (when I was 30, one dentist wanted to remove 1 forward molar in each right/left and upper/lower part of my jaw to let the remaining teeth "spread out",  I can't open my mouth very wide (a standard thick sandwich is a problem, and a thick sub is impossible).

So when that lost-filling tooth twinged a few months ago, I became worried.  It subsided, bit there were a few days months later when I detected some problems.

A month ago, I noticed some "pinkish"  as I expelled my toothpaste.  And then a tiny bit of filling.  Then pinkish regulary.  I recognized that I had to do something about that and  started cutting done on cigarettes.  The connection there is that I sure wanted to not cough and have to swallow in the dental chair.

Last week, I suddenly felt a slight movement at that bad tooth.  I suspect that there is a broken piece of tooth at the gumline.  Fortunately, there is no pain (I think I had a root canal work there 20 years ago). 

But it meant that I couldn't put visiting a dentist any longer.  I had had Dad living with me for a year in May 2012 to 2013 nd he had a tooth problem.  So I had searched Angie's List for the best local dentists.  And the one I found for him was very good. 

I visited his office today and made an appointment.  He's not going to be happy with the problems I have described above.  But he specializes on children an old people, and in my experience watching him work on Dad's bad tooth, he will be the most tolerant dentist I can find.

I will see how the initial visit goes.  He may simply pull out bits of a broken tooth  and drill out the roots.  I wouldn't mind the tooth simply being removed.  Or he may see I can't handle the dental chair concious and suggest sedation dentistry.

But this is a big step for me right now.  I'm not scared of the dentistry work; just my body's annoying reactions to all that stuff in my mouth.  The dentist doesn't scare me.  But I'm afraid I might choke to death while he does his good work!

If I don't return, then something went really wrong.  Seriously, one never knows...